Security areas are typically encountered in places such as an airport security terminals, courthouse entrances and various other places where a person and their luggage or personal items may need to be searched prior to entering or leaving a particular room or area of a building. These security areas typically involve the steps of a person moving through a metal detector area and removing various items from their clothing, pockets or luggage and placing them in a separate area to be either hand checked or machine checked. It is common that people traveling through security areas, such as those in an airport security terminal, may be carrying electronic devices and in particular laptop/notebook-sized computers. These laptop computers are delicate devices which should not be dropped or jostled in an excessive amount as they can be damaged. It is very common that people traveling on business through airport security terminals will have such items sized like a laptop computer so that they can later do work on the plane. The person may have personal items such as wallets, keys, change, cell phones, PDAs and other small bags that need to be checked. These items are typically loose objects that can easily be lost or damaged if not handled in a safe manner.
After the person removes these items from their pockets they are usually placed into a tray or small container that is then either checked by the security personnel by hand or by a scanning device such as an x-ray machine, a particulate matter screener, or some other similar device as will be understood by a person of ordinary skill in the art. The trays that are typically used are non-standardized small trays. In addition, if the person has any electronic equipment such as a camera, a laptop computer or any other device with may have to be checked by the security personnel these items are sometimes put in a larger tray to be later hand checked by the security personnel or passed through a scanning device such as an x-ray machine, a particulate matter screener, or some other similar device as will be understood by a person of ordinary skill in the art.
A disadvantage to the present system used in security areas is that the trays for holding laptop computers are not part of a uniform system and do not protect the items from possible damage. Therefore, it is possible that multiple size trays that do not in any way correspond with one another may be used at a security area thus making storage of the trays when they are not in use cumbersome. A disadvantage to a non-standardized tray system is that when the trays are to be stored they may take up passenger access areas, thereby causing further waiting time as the security personnel moves the unused trays so that a person may pass through a passenger access area. Further it is common that there are inadequately-sized trays for holding large items such as laptop computers, thereby increasing the chance of the computers being damaged by being placed on a conveyer belt without being placed in a tray through a scanning device such as an x-ray machine, a particulate matter screener, or some other similar device as will be understood by a person of ordinary skill in the art. Also, the time taken to search for a possible adequately-sized tray creates inefficiency and extends the waiting time while a person is passing through a passenger access area.
Another disadvantage of the present system is that after the trays are used and the contents are emptied the tray must then be brought to a separate area of the security area. Currently, there is no system for transporting, storing and organizing the trays for easy access. Especially if there are large numbers and various sizes of trays, they may be cumbersome to transport and take up an excessive amount of space. Further, manually lifting and moving the trays can cause back and shoulder injuries, particularly when that action is repeated many times daily.
A disadvantage to the prior system is that the trays which are being used typically are plain trays and do not utilize space provided on the trays to generate additional revenue such as revenue which can be derived from advertising on the trays.
There exists a need for a system for a security area for moving the trays from a starting position to an ending position which allows the trays to be efficiently utilized, gathered and stored to be later used again.
There is also a need for a standardized sizing of the tray to allow for easier transport of the trays when they are not is use and also to provide a cleaner aesthetic appearance.
There is a need for uniformity from airport to airport to assist in the movement of people through the security checkpoints and also in the security process itself.